On September 5, 2012, a federal court jury of seven citizens found that Milwaukee Police Officer James Jekanoski did not use excessive force when he arrested Robert Stokes during the execution of high-risk, no-knock search warrant at a drug house in November, 2007.

The jury issued its verdict after hearing several hours of testimony relating to the circumstances that faced Officer Jekanoski when, as the lead Tactical Enforcement Unit officer into the drug house, he took the plaintiff into custody. After the plaintiff was taken into custody by Officer Jekanoski, police located and seized over a kilogram of marijuana, two unlawfully possessed firearms and rescued nine pit bull dogs kept for dog fighting.

The property was thereafter shut down by the City Attorney’s office in a public nuisance action for facilitating drug dealing and dog fighting. Mr. Stokes is currently serving prison sentences due to convictions in federal and state court.

It is heartening to know that juries often see through these kinds of baseless allegations and agree that the police are working to rid the city’s neighborhoods of crime, fear and disorder. We thank Officer Jekanoski for being the kind of officer this department is proud of. He was shot in the line of duty in 2009 and continues to serve as a member of the MPD’s elite Tactical Enforcement Unit.